skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable
building of many storeys, usually designed for
office and commercial use. There is no official
definition or height above which a building may
be classified as a skyscraper. One common
feature is having a steel framework from which
curtain walls are suspended, rather than load-
bearing walls of conventional construction.
In context, a relatively small building may be
considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well
above its built environment and changes the
overall skyline . The maximum height of
structures has progressed historically with
building methods and technologies. Also lacking
an official definition, the term 'Supertall' has
arisen for the current generation of
exceptionally tall buildings.
Definition
The term "skyscraper" was first applied to
buildings of steel framed construction of at least
10 storeys in the late 19th century, a result of
public amazement at the tall buildings being
built in major cities like Chicago , New York City ,
Detroit , and St. Louis .[1] The first steel frame
skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building
(originally 10 storeys with a height of 42 m or
138 ft) in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Some point
to New York's seven-floor Equitable Life
Assurance Building , built in 1870, as an early
skyscraper for its innovative use of a kind of
skeletal frame, but such designation depends
largely on what factors are chosen. Even the
scholars making the argument find it to be
purely academic. [2]
The structural definition of the word skyscraper
was refined later by architectural historians,
based on engineering developments of the
1880s that had enabled construction of tall
multi-storey buildings. This definition was based
on the steel skeleton—as opposed to
constructions of load-bearing masonry , which
passed their practical limit in 1891 with
Chicago's Monadnock Building .
Wikiquote has a collection of
quotations related to: Skyscraper
“ What is the chief
characteristic of the tall office
building? It is lofty. It must be
tall. The force and power of
altitude must be in it, the
glory and pride of exaltation
must be in it. It must be every
inch a proud and soaring
thing, rising in sheer
exaltation that from bottom
to top it is a unit without a
single dissenting line. ”
— Louis Sullivan's The Tall Office
Building Artistically Considered
(1896)
The steel frame developed in stages of
increasing self-sufficiency, with several buildings
in Chicago and New York advancing the
technology that allowed the steel frame to carry
a building on its own. Today, however, many of
the tallest skyscrapers are built almost entirely
with reinforced concrete .[3]
Skyscraper and supertall
The Emporis Standards Committee defines a
high-rise building as "a multi-storey structure
between 35–100 meters tall, or a building of
unknown height from 12–39 floors" [4] and a
skyscraper as "a multi-storey building whose
architectural height is at least 100 m or
330 ft." [5] Some structural engineers define a
highrise as any vertical construction for which
wind is a more significant load factor than
earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion
fits not only high-rises but some other tall
structures, such as towers .
The word skyscraper often carries a connotation
of pride and achievement. The skyscraper, in
name and social function, is a modern
expression of the age-old symbol of the world
center or axis mundi: a pillar that connects
earth to heaven and the four compass directions
to one another. [6]
A loose convention of some in the United States
and Europe draws the lower limit of a
skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. [7]
The term 'supertall' has recently been coined.
The CTBUH defines “supertall” as a
building over 300 m (980 ft) in height.
Although great heights are now being
achieved with built tall buildings—in
excess of 800 m (2,600 ft)—at the mid-
point of 2011 there [were] only
approximately 54 buildings in excess of
300 m (980 ft) completed and occupied
globally.
—CTBUH [8]
History
The Two Towers of Bologna in the 12th
century reached 97.2 m (319 ft) in height.
The 16th-century city of Shibam consisted
entirely of over 500 high-rise tower houses.
Pre-19th century
Modern skyscrapers are built with steel or
reinforced concrete frameworks and curtain
walls of glass or polished stone. They utilize
mechanical equipment such as water pumps
and elevators . Until the 19th century, buildings
of over six storeys were rare, as having great
numbers of stairs to climb was impractical for
inhabitants, and water pressure was usually
insufficient to supply running water above 50 m
(164 ft).
The tallest building in ancient times was the
146 m (479 ft) Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient
Egypt, built in the 26th century BCE. It was not
surpassed in height for thousands of years, the
14th century CE Lincoln Cathedral being
conjectured by many to exceed it. [9] The latter
in turn was not surpassed until the 555 feet
(169 m) Washington Monument in 1884.
However, being uninhabited, none of these
structures actually complies with the modern
definition of a skyscraper.
High-rise apartments flourished in classical
antiquity . Ancient Roman insulae there and in
other imperial cities reached 10 and more
storeys. [10] Beginning with Augustus (r.
30 BCE-14 CE), several emperors attempted to
establish limits of 20–25 m for multi-storey
buildings, but met with only limited success. [11]
[12] Lower floors were typically occupied by
shops or wealthy families, the upper rented to
the lower classes. [10] Surviving Oxyrhynchus
Papyri indicate that seven-storey buildings
existed in provincial towns such as in 3rd
century CE Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.[13]
The skylines of many important medieval cities
had large numbers of high-rise urban towers,
built by the wealthy for defense and status. The
residential Towers of 12th century Bologna
numbered between 80 to 100 at a time, capped
by the 97.2 m (319 ft) "Two Towers". A
Florentine law of 1251 decreed that all urban
buildings be immediately reduced to less than
26 m. [14] Even medium-sized towns of the era
are known to have proliferations of towers, such
as the 72 up to 51 m height in San Gimignano .
[14]
The medieval Egyptian city of Fustat housed
many high-rise residential buildings, which Al-
Muqaddasi in the 10th century described as
resembling minarets . Nasir Khusraw in the early
11th century described some of them rising up
to 14 storeys, with roof gardens on the top floor
complete with ox-drawn water wheels for
irrigating them. [15] Cairo in the 16th century
had high-rise apartment buildings where the
two lower floors were for commercial and
storage purposes and the multiple storeys above
them were rented out to tenants . [16] An early
example of a city consisting entirely of high-rise
housing is the 16th-century city of Shibam in
Yemen . Shibam was made up of over 500
tower houses, [17] each one rising 5 to 11
storeys high,[18] with each floor being an
apartment occupied by a single family. The city
was built in this way in order to protect it from
Bedouin attacks. [17] Shibam still has the tallest
mudbrick buildings in the world, with many of
them over 30 m (98 ft) high. [19]
An early modern example of high-rise housing
was in 17th-century Edinburgh, Scotland, where
a defensive city wall defined the boundaries of
the city. Due to the restricted land area available
for development, the houses increased in height
instead. Buildings of 11 storeys were common,
and there are records of buildings as high as 14
storeys. Many of the stone-built structures can
still be seen today in the old town of Edinburgh.
The oldest iron framed building in the world,
although only partially iron framed, is The
Flaxmill (also locally known as the "Maltings"), in
Shrewsbury , England. Built in 1797, it is seen as
the "grandfather of skyscrapers”, since its
fireproof combination of cast iron columns and
cast iron beams developed into the modern
steel frame that made modern skyscrapers
possible. Unfortunately, it lies derelict and needs
much investment to keep it standing.
Oriel Chambers, Liverpool. The world's first
glass curtain walled building. The stone
mullions are decorative.
The Wainwright Building , a 10-storey red
brick office building in St. Louis, Missouri ,
built in 1891
Early skyscrapers
In 1852 Elisha Otis introduced the safety
elevator, allowing convenient and safe
passenger movement to upper floors. Another
crucial development was the use of a steel
frame instead of stone or brick, otherwise the
walls on the lower floors on a tall building
would be too thick to be practical. An early
development in this area was Oriel Chambers in
Liverpool. Designed by local architect Peter Ellis
in 1864, the building was the world's first iron-
framed, glass curtain-walled office building. It
was only 5 floors high. [20][21][22] Further
developments led to the world's first skyscraper,
the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in
Chicago, built in 1884–1885. [23] While its
height is not considered very impressive today,
it was at that time. The architect, Major William
Le Baron Jenney, created a load-bearing
structural frame. In this building, a steel frame
supported the entire weight of the walls, instead
of load-bearing walls carrying the weight of the
building. This development led to the "Chicago
skeleton" form of construction.
Burnham and Root 's 1889 Rand McNally
Building in Chicago, 1889, was the first all-steel
framed skyscraper, [24] while Louis Sullivan's
Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, 1891,
was the first steel-framed building with soaring
vertical bands to emphasize the height of the
building and is therefore considered by some to
be the first true skyscraper.
Most early skyscrapers emerged in the land-
strapped areas of Chicago, London, and New
York toward the end of the 19th century. A land
boom in Melbourne, Australia between 1888–
1891 spurred the creation of a significant
number of early skyscrapers, though none of
these were steel reinforced and few remain
today. Height limits and fire restrictions were
later introduced. London builders soon found
building heights limited due to a complaint from
Queen Victoria, rules that continued to exist
with few exceptions until the 1950s. Concerns
about aesthetics and fire safety had likewise
hampered the development of skyscrapers
across continental Europe for the first half of the
twentieth century (with the notable exceptions
of the 1898 Witte Huis (White House) in
Rotterdam; the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool,
completed in 1911 and 90 m (300 ft) high; [25]
and the 17-storey Kungstornen (Kings' Towers)
in Stockholm, Sweden, which were built 1924–
25 [26] , the 15-storey Edificio Telefónica in
Madrid, Spain, built in 1929; the 26-storey
Boerentoren in Antwerp, Belgium, built in 1932;
and the 31-storey Torre Piacentini in Genoa,
Italy, built in 1940). After an early competition
between Chicago and New York City for the
world's tallest building, New York took the lead
by 1895 with the completion of the American
Surety Building , leaving New York with the title
of tallest building for many years. New York City
developers competed among themselves, with
successively taller buildings claiming the title of
"world's tallest" in the 1920s and early 1930s,
culminating with the completion of the Chrysler
Building in 1930 and the Empire State Building
in 1931, the world's tallest building for forty
years. The first completed World Trade Center
tower became the world's tallest building in
1972. However, it was soon overtaken by the
Sears Tower (now Willis Tower ) in Chicago
within two years. The Sears Tower stood as the
world's tallest building for 24 years, from 1974
until 1998, until it was edged out by Petronas
Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which held the
title for six years.
Modern skyscrapers
From the 1930s onwards, skyscrapers also
began to appear in Latin America ( São Paulo ,
Buenos Aires , Santiago , Caracas, Bogotá, Mexico
City ) and in Asia ( Tokyo , Shanghai, Hong Kong ,
Manila , Singapore , Mumbai , Seoul, Kuala
Lumpur, Taipei , Bangkok ). Immediately after
World War II , the Soviet Union planned eight
massive skyscrapers dubbed "Stalin Towers " for
Moscow; seven of these were eventually built.
The rest of Europe also slowly began to permit
skyscrapers, starting with Madrid, during the
1950s. Finally, skyscrapers also began to be
constructed in cities of Africa, the Middle East
and Oceania (mainly Australia) from the late
1950s.
In the early 1960s structural engineer Fazlur
Khan realized that the rigid steel frame structure
that had "dominated tall building design and
construction so long was not the only system
fitting for tall buildings", marking "the beginning
of a new era of skyscraper revolution in terms of
multiple structural systems ." [27] His central
innovation in skyscraper design and construction
was the idea of the "tube" structural system ,
including the "framed tube", "trussed tube", and
"bundled tube". [28] These systems allowed far
greater economic efficiency, [29] and also
allowed efficient skyscrapers to take on various
shapes, no longer needing to be box-shaped.
[30] Over the next fifteen years, many towers
were built by Khan and the "Second Chicago
School ", [31] including the massive 442 m
(1,450 ft) Willis Tower . [32] Since 2000, Cities
like Chicago,[33] Shanghai,[34] Dubai, New
York, and Toronto have experienced a huge
surge in skyscraper construction. Chicago, Hong
Kong, and New York City, otherwise known as
"the big three," are recognized in architectural
circles as having especially compelling skylines.
A landmark skyscraper can inspire a boom of
new high-rise projects in its city, as Taipei 101
has done in Taipei since its opening in 2004. In
2010, The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant
Park became the world's first commercial LEED
Platinum skyscraper.
History of tallest skyscrapers
The Empire State Building in New York City
is a well-known skyscraper and was the
tallest in the world for nearly 40 years.
Main article: History of the tallest buildings in
the world
At the beginning of the 20th century, New York
City was a center for the Beaux-Arts
architectural movement, attracting the talents of
such great architects as Stanford White and
Carrere and Hastings . As better construction
and engineering technology became available as
the century progressed, New York and Chicago
became the focal point of the competition for
the tallest building in the world. Each city's
striking skyline has been composed of
numerous and varied skyscrapers, many of
which are icons of 20th century architecture:
The Flatiron Building , designed by Daniel
Hudson Burnham and standing 285 ft
(87 m) high, was one of the tallest buildings
in the city upon its completion in 1902,
made possible by its steel skeleton. It was
one of the first buildings designed with a
steel framework, and to achieve this height
with other construction methods of that
time would have been very difficult. (The
1889 Tower Building, designed by Bradford
Gilbert and considered by some to be New
York's first skyscraper, may have been the
first building to use a skeletal steel frame.)
[35] Subsequent buildings such as the
Singer Building , the Metropolitan Life
Tower were higher still.
The Woolworth Building , a neo-Gothic
"Cathedral of Commerce" overlooking City
Hall, was designed by Cass Gilbert . At
792 feet (241 m), it became the world's
tallest building upon its completion in 1913,
an honor it retained until 1930, when it was
overtaken by 40 Wall Street .
That same year, the Chrysler Building took
the lead as the tallest building in the world,
scraping the sky at 1,046 feet (319 m). [36]
Designed by William Van Alen , an Art Deco
style masterpiece with an exterior crafted of
brick, [37] the Chrysler Building continues to
be a favorite of New Yorkers to this day. [38]
The Empire State Building , the first
building to have more than 100 floors (it has
102), was completed the following year. It
was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon
in the contemporary Art Deco style. The
tower takes its name from the nickname of
New York State . Upon its completion in 1931
at 1,250 feet (381 m), it took the top spot as
tallest building, and towered above all other
buildings until 1972. The antenna mast
added in 1951 brought pinnacle height to
1,472 feet (449 m), lowered in 1984 to
1,454 feet (443 m). [39]
The World Trade Center officially reached
full height in 1972, was completed in 1973,
and consisted of two tall towers and several
smaller buildings. For a short time, the first
of the two towers was the world's tallest
building. Upon completion, the towers stood
for 28 years, until the September 11 attacks
destroyed the buildings in 2001. Various
governmental entities, financial firms, and
law firms called the towers home.
The Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower)
was completed in 1974, one year after the
World Trade Center, and surpassed it as the
world's tallest building. It was the first
building to employ the " bundled tube "
structural system, designed by Fazlur Khan.
[30] The building was not surpassed in
height until the Petronas Towers were
constructed in 1998, but remained the
tallest in some categories until Burj Khalifa
surpassed it in all categories in 2010. It is
currently the tallest building in the United
States.
Momentum in setting records passed from the
United States to other nations with the opening
of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, in 1998. The record for world's tallest
building remained in Asia with the opening of
Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2004. A number
of architectural records, including those of the
world's tallest building and tallest free-standing
structure, moved to the Middle East with the
opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates.
This geographical transition is accompanied by a
change in approach to skyscraper design. For
much of the twentieth century large buildings
took the form of simple geometrical shapes.
This reflected the "international style" or
modernist philosophy shaped by Bauhaus
architects early in the century. The last of these,
the Willis Tower and World Trade Center towers
in New York, erected in the 1970s, reflect the
philosophy. Tastes shifted in the decade which
followed, and new skyscrapers began to exhibit
postmodernist influences. This approach to
design avails itself of historical elements, often
adapted and re-interpreted, in creating
technologically modern structures. The Petronas
Twin Towers recall Asian pagoda architecture
and Islamic geometric principles. Taipei 101
likewise reflects the pagoda tradition as it
incorporates ancient motifs such as the ruyi
symbol. The Burj Khalifa draws inspiration from
traditional Islamic art . Architects in recent years
have sought to create structures that would not
appear equally at home if set in any part of the
world, but that reflect the culture thriving in the
spot where they stand.
For current rankings of skyscrapers by height,
see List of tallest buildings in the world .
The following list measures height of the roof .
The more common gauge is the highest
architectural detail ; such ranking would have
included Petronas Towers, built in 1998. See List
of tallest buildings in the world for details.
Built Building City Country Roof Floors Pinnacle Current
status
1870 Equitable Life
Building [dubious – discuss ] New York
City
United
States 142 ft 43 m 8
Destroyed
by fire in
1912
1889 Auditorium Building Chicago United
States 269 ft 82 m 17 349 ft 106 m Standing
1890 New York World Building New York
City
United
States 309 ft 94 m 20 349 ft 106 m Demolished
in 1955
1894 Manhattan Life Insurance
Building
New York
City
United
States 348 ft 106 m 18 Demolished
in 1963
1895 Milwaukee City Hall Milwaukee United
States 353 ft 108 m 15 Standing
1899 Park Row Building New York
City
United
States 391 ft 119 m 30 Standing
1901 Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia United
States 511 ft 155.8 m 9 548 ft 167 m Standing
1908 Singer Building New York
City
United
States 612 ft 187 m 47 Demolished
in 1968
1909 Met Life Tower New York
City
United
States 700 ft 213 m 50 Standing
1913 Woolworth Building New York
City
United
States 792 ft 241 m 57 Standing
1930 40 Wall Street New York
City
United
States 70 927 ft 283 m Standing
1930 Chrysler Building New York
City
United
States 927 ft 282.9 m 77 1,046 ft 319 m Standing
1931 Empire State Building New York
City
United
States 1,250 ft 381 m 102 1,454 ft 443 m Standing
1972 World Trade Center (North
tower)
New York
City
United
States 1,368 ft 417 m 110 1,727 ft 526.3 m Destroyed
in 2001
1974 Willis Tower (formerly
Sears Tower) Chicago United
States 1,450 ft 442 m 108 1,729 ft 527 m Standing
2004 Taipei 101 Taipei Taiwan 1,474 ft 449 m 101 1,671 ft 509 m Standing
2010 Burj Khalifa Dubai
United
Arab
Emirates
2,717 ft 828 m 160 2,717 ft 828 m Standing
Source: emporis.com
Taipei 101 , formerly the
world's tallest skyscraper,
was the first to exceed the
half-kilometer mark.
The iconic World Trade
Center twin towers were
destroyed in 2001 .
The Willis Tower in
Chicago was the world's
tallest building from 1974
to 1998, and remains the
tallest in the Western
Hemisphere .
The Petronas Twin
Towers .
Tower 2 of the
International Finance
Centre in Hong Kong is
one of the 20 tallest
buildings in the world .
The City of Capitals in
Moscow is the tallest
completed skyscraper in
Europe.
Today
Today, skyscrapers are an increasingly common
sight where land is expensive, as in the centers
of big cities, because they provide such a high
ratio of rentable floor space per unit area of
land. They are built not just for economy of
space; like temples and palaces of the past,
skyscrapers are considered symbols of a city's
economic power. Not only do they define the
skyline , they help to define the city's identity.
Supertall towers
At the time Taipei 101 broke the half-km mark
in height, it was already technically possible to
build structures towering over a km above the
ground [ citation needed] . Proposals for such
structures have been put forward, including the
Kingdom Tower to be built in Jeddah , Saudi
Arabia [40][41] and Burj Mubarak Al Kabir in
Kuwait. Kilometer-plus structures present
architectural challenges that may eventually
place them in a new architectural category. [42]
Future notable skyscrapers
The following skyscrapers, all contenders for
being among the tallest in their city or region,
are under construction and due to be
completed in the next few years:
Construction of the 133- floor , 640 m tall
Digital Media City Landmark Building in
Digital Media City, Seoul, South Korea,
started in 2009, which will be the second-
tallest building in the world when it is
completed in 2015, housing the world's
tallest observatory and hotels. Being
constructed at the fastest speed among
major skyscraper projects by South Korea's
Samsung C&T (who also built Burj Khalifa ),
the supertall is the first skyscraper to contain
an entire city inside a building, including the
world's largest aquarium, a luxury
department store, shopping malls, clinic
center, high-tech offices, first-class
apartments, six to eight-star hotels, a
concert restaurant, a broadcasting studio
and an art center.
Construction of the Shanghai Tower started
on 29 November 2008. [43] The tower will
be 632 m (2,073 ft) high and have 127
floors. [44][45] The building will feature a
glass curtain wall and nine indoor gardens
when it is completed in 2014. [46][47]
Construction of the 151- floor , 610 m tall
151 Incheon Tower in Songdo International
City , Incheon , South Korea, started in 2008,
which will be the tallest twin towers in the
world when it is completed in 2014.
The Abraj Al-Bait Towers, also known as
the "Mecca Royal Clock Hotel Tower" is a
complex under construction in Mecca , Saudi
Arabia by the Saudi Binladin Group . The
complex consists of seven towers, and the
tallest tower (Hotel Tower) will have a height
of 601 m (1,972 ft). Upon completion in
2011, the structure will have the largest floor
area of any structure in the world, at
1,500,000 m 2 (16,000,000 sq ft).
Construction of the 110- floor , 510 m tall
Busan Lotte World , Busan , South Korea,
started in 2009. It is due for completion in
2016.
One World Trade Center is currently under
construction in New York City and will be the
tallest tower in the redevelopment of the site
of the former World Trade Center . [48] Its
pinnacle will reach a height of 541.4 m
(1,776 ft), [48] a height (in feet) representing
the year of the United States Declaration of
Independence .
World One is a 442 m (1,450 ft) tall
residential skyscraper under construction in
Mumbai , India. It is located in Upper Worli
of Mumbai on a 17.5 acre site. The project
will cost INR 2,000 crore (US$380 million),
be completed by 2014 and will have the
world’s second tallest residential tower once
completed. It will be rated as Leed Gold
Certified building by the Green Building
Council. World One is designed by Pei Cobb
Freed and Partners and Leslie E. Robertson
Associates.
Construction of the Shard London Bridge in
London started in March 2009, and is
scheduled to be completed in May 2012, in
time for the London Olympics . [49][50] At
310 m (1,017 ft), it is set to be the tallest
building in the European Union. [51]
Sustainability
30 St Mary Axe in London is an example of
a modern environmentally friendly
skyscraper.
This section may contain original
research . Please improve it by
verifying the claims made and
adding references . Statements
consisting only of original research
may be removed. More details may
be available on the talk page . (April
2011)
The skyscraper as a concept is a product of the
industrialized age , made possible by cheap
energy and raw materials. The amount of steel,
concrete and glass needed to construct a
skyscraper is vast, and these materials represent
a great deal of embodied energy . Tall
skyscrapers are very heavy, which means that
they must be built on a sturdier foundation than
would be required for shorter, lighter buildings.
Building materials must also be lifted to the top
of a skyscraper during construction, requiring
more energy than would be necessary at lower
heights. Furthermore, a skyscraper consumes a
lot of electricity because potable and non-
potable water must be pumped to the highest
occupied floors, skyscrapers are usually
designed to be mechanically ventilated ,
elevators are generally used instead of stairs,
and natural lighting cannot be utilized in rooms
far from the windows and the windowless
spaces such as elevators, bathrooms and
stairwells.
In the lower levels of a skyscraper a larger
percentage of the building cross section must be
devoted to the building structure and services
than is required for lower buildings:-
More structure – because it must be
stronger to support more floors above
The elevator conundrum creates the need
for more lift shafts—everyone comes in at
the bottom and they all have to pass
through the lower part of the building to get
to the upper levels.
Building services—power and water enters
the building from below and have to pass
through the lower levels to get to upper
levels.
In low-rise structures, the support rooms
( chillers , transformers , boilers , pumps and air
handling units ) can be put in basements or roof
space—areas which have low rental value.
There is, however, a limit to how far this plant
can be located from the area it serves. The
farther away it is the larger the risers for ducts
and pipes from this plant to the floors they
serve and the more floor area these risers take.
In practice this means that in highrise buildings
this plant is located on 'plant levels' at intervals
up the building.